On November 2, 2022, the Next Level Lab hosted a presentation by David Perkins, Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a founding member of Harvard Project Zero, entitled SURFING ON QUICKSAND: Navigating a World of Information, Opinion, and Spin. Dr. Perkins conducts research on creativity in the arts and sciences, informal reasoning, problem solving, understanding, individual and organizational learning, and the teaching of thinking skills.
In reflecting on the long history of work on thinking skills and dispositions at Project Zero, Dr. Perkins’ presentation’s theme is a part of a much larger project called Idea into Action, which “refers to a quest to translate ideas (principles, plans, good intentions, etc.) into action on the ground.” This framing is of great interest to the Next Level Lab, where our research is grounded in the authentic contexts where individuals learn and work.
Next Level Lab Distinguished Speaker Series: David Perkins from Next Level Lab at HGSE on Vimeo.
T-Shirt for Our Times: “I’m Not Arguing, I’m Just Explaining Why I’m Right”
When discussing the nature of political discourse in the United States, Dr. Perkins reflected on the conversational stalemates common today, especially concerning beliefs that exist contrary to substantial factual evidence, such as belief that the earth is flat, the denial of global warming, and the persistence of vaccine reluctance.
This pattern of stalled arguments and stubborn positions has at least three names in the literature: confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and myside bias (a term coined at Project Zero). Even in the presence of contrary evidence, people exhibit a positional resistance that can lead to extreme cases of what Dr. Perkins referred to as misbeliefs about the world and how it works.
Resistance, not Ignorance: Debunking assumptions that these misbeliefs are rare or harmless, he further explained that these positions are born out of an extreme resistance to counter-evidence and counterarguments, rather than simply a product of ignorance.
Pockets, not Ability: These misbeliefs are not connected to sweeping deficits, but Dr. Perkins noted that these resistant positions exist in pockets, where an individual may otherwise be thoughtful, think critically, and make smart judgements.
The Mystery of Misbeliefs
Beliefs are the products of complex, complicated processes facilitated by belief behaviors. A belief behvaior is a process where all different kinds of motives converge as one engages in, maintains, and acquires beliefs.
One may acquire their beliefs about questions of fact by just “picking them up” through exposure to textbooks, television, websites, news, and daily conversation. Dr. Perkins continued by explaining that when things are puzzling we may engage in two different belief behavior styles: inquiry and advocacy.
Inquiry: Based on personal values, professional responsibilities, curiosity, or the desire to complete a task correctly, one may “dig into” a topic to acquire accurate information.
Advocacy: Starting with the premise that one already has it right, this belief behavior is a style of acquisition, not just a style of defense. It’s a style that seeks perspectives that are aligned with an individual’s favorite spokesperson, political leader, journalist, or the people in their community. It reinforces a sense of identity through maintaining a strong stance and resisting “flip-flopping” ideas. It may further affirm one’s intuition or enduring beliefs across time.
Everyone can access either of these behavioral styles. When confronted with a messy, puzzling situation of public currency, we have a choice as to whether one, the other, or blurring of both will be used.
Costs and Benefits of Inquiry and Advocacy
Costs: The cost of effort into inquiry is high, especially when one is engaging a highly contentious and debated topic. On the other hand, advocacy is cheap for everyday issues that are contentious. If someone has a gut sense that something is right and is persistent to stand by it, when faced with counterevidence and arguments, they can hold their ground.
Benefits: What are the benefits of getting it right? If the topic is complicated, it can be difficult to get it right. If the topic is not relevant to your everyday life or does not have near-term consequences for you, the benefits can be low. For advocacy, there can be a lot of benefits: alignment with and continuity of identity, maintenance of community, and the development of reputation for strong stances (as opposed to being wishy-washy). In short, the benefits of advocacy can be substantial and in everyday encounters, can be more impactful in our interaction with individuals and families.
There are environments where these benefits and costs may shift, particularly in a professional setting. There may be higher stakes in being right, or because of previous training or expertise, it may be easier to practice inquiry. Dr. Perkins concluded that for many, more often, advocacy seems to be a “better deal.”
Quicksand of Belief
However, there’s an entrapping quality to advocacy. This, Dr. Perkins described as the quicksand of belief. Over time, continuous advocacy belief behaviors lead to an entanglement of positions with identity. As we cement our views about an issue and defend those views in the face of challenges, they can start to feel like an integral part of who we are. This can result in a sense of group cohesion with others who share our perspective, and a sense of alienation from those who disagree: “if you’re not with us, you’re against us.”
Exploiting Advocacy Allure for Advantage
Many entities exploit the benefits and even the quicksand of taking advocacy beliefs through strategies to create brand loyalty and brand rivalries. Dr. Perkins shared that one of the most dangerous forms of this is rivalry in politics. Political rhetoric employs a number of messaging strategies that rely on advocacy over inquiry, such as “the facts are on our side” and “it’s us or them.”
Perkins argued that what gets us “stuck” in advocacy is the culminating effects of these three phenomena:
- The cost-benefit “better deal” for advocacy.
- The quicksand effect of advocacy over time.
- Exploiting advocacy’s allure for advantage.
Surfing on Quicksand
Perkins offered some solutions to this quicksand effect through three different perspectives: the scout mindset, street epistemology, and relaxed inquiry.
The Scout Mindset: Based on a book by Julia Galef, the scout mindset encourages individuals to approach conversations from the perspective of a military scout, whose position requires accuracy of information, accumulating information incrementally, searching for information in the middle of extreme views, and viewing the world as uncertain, rather than the self.
Street Epistemology: In engaging others with differing views than yourself, the perspective encourages you to focus on the inquiry of the other person rather than your own. This involves asking permission to engage in conversation, being curious about the other person’s certainty, and reflecting back their rationales and reasoning instead of inserting your own.
Relaxed Inquiry: This approach seeks to address the “better deal” element of choosing advocacy over inquiry. It de-escalates inquiry by making inquiry “relaxed” as opposed to rushed through examining four elements: time, confidence, identity, and channels.
Time: Instead of the pressure to know now, the perspective suggests offering yourself time, moving slowly and allowing the information to come to you.
Confidence: By not needing to define a concrete, static sense of truth, one can be open to change by conceiving understanding as a malleable and adaptive process.
Identity: By attempting to expand the scope of what beliefs one associates with a particular identity, you get a more complex understanding of what static beliefs a “group” can actually have.
Channels: If one can diversify the channels through which one acquires information, particularly by avoiding extreme opinions and also engaging with expert perspectives, these calmer middle and expert views will expand your exposure to different, more informed perspectives.
Culture of Inquiry
In his concluding remarks, Dr. Perkins emphasized the importance of both inquiry and advocacy by highlighting advocating for a viewpoint as an important means of engaging issues. The real problem is the act of getting stuck in the quicksand of belief due to individual and social dynamics. In response to this, he highlighted that beyond the “craft of critical thinking” there is also the element of how we choose to engage with the “messy issues in our messy world.” By fostering mindsets of choice, one might shift the culture to one of balance between inquiry and advocacy and eclipse the commonplace stalemates in discourse. Having the ability and disposition to engage in productive discourse will be increasingly critical as we navigate lifelong learning in a complex, uncertain, and turbulent future.
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by Mari Longmire, NLL Research Assistant